Magic Awakened

Magic Awakened is a term primarily known as the title of a video game set in the Wizarding World. The phrase itself is not used within the seven original novels by J.K. Rowling to describe the phenomenon of a young witch or wizard's first manifestation of magical ability. In canon, this concept is more commonly referred to as accidental magic or uncontrolled magic, which occurs before a child receives formal training and a wand.

The first appearance of magic in a child is a key sign of their magical nature and is typically involuntary, occurring before they are old enough to attend a school like Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

  • Trigger: These magical outbursts are almost always triggered by strong emotions such as fear, anger, surprise, or distress. The child has little to no conscious control over the magic they are producing.
  • Nature: The effects are often unpredictable and can range from minor and harmless, like regrowing hair, to significant and dangerous, like causing objects to explode or vanishing through solid walls.
  • Significance for Muggle-borns: For Muggle-born children, these incidents are often the first, albeit confusing and sometimes frightening, indication to them and their families that they possess magical powers.
  • Ministry Intervention: The Ministry of Magic's Accidental Magic Reversal Squad is responsible for cleaning up the consequences of these magical outbursts, especially when they are witnessed by Muggles.
  • Cessation: Once a young witch or wizard begins their formal magical education and learns to channel their power through a wand, these uncontrolled instances of accidental magic generally cease.
  • Harry Potter: Exhibited several instances of accidental magic before learning he was a wizard, often in response to stress or anger caused by the Dursleys.
    • His hair grew back completely overnight after Petunia Dursley sheared it.
    • He shrunk a hideous woolly jumper from his aunt to avoid wearing it.
    • He found himself on the school kitchen roof after jumping to hide from Dudley Dursley and his gang, an early act of Apparition.
    • He caused the glass front of the boa constrictor enclosure at the zoo to vanish, setting the snake free.
  • Neville Longbottom: His family feared he was a Squib until his magic dramatically manifested to save his own life.
    • When his Great-Uncle Algie dangled him by his ankles from an upstairs window and lost his grip, Neville bounced safely all the way down the garden and into the road.
  • Lily Evans: Her magical abilities were apparent from a young age, as observed by a young Severus Snape.
    • She could make flowers open and close in her palm and control her movement on a swing set to fly higher and longer than was naturally possible.
  • Ariana Dumbledore: After a traumatic attack by Muggle boys, her magic became repressed and dangerously unstable.
    • She was unable to control her powerful magic, which would burst out of her when she was frightened or angry. One such explosion accidentally killed her mother, Kendra Dumbledore.
  • Tom Riddle: Unlike most magical children, Tom Riddle learned to control his innate abilities to some degree even before attending Hogwarts.
    • He used his powers to move objects without touching them, communicate with snakes (Parseltongue), and mentally and physically torment the other children at his orphanage.
  • Harry Potter: Magic Awakened* is a massively multiplayer online collectible card role-playing game. It was developed by Warner Bros. Games and NetEase. The game's narrative is set at Hogwarts several years after the events of the Second Wizarding War, allowing players to create their own character and experience life as a new student. (Video Game)